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At the beginning of 2012, I decided the most honest and effective way to help the world invest better was to publicly show how I go about making decisions for a public portfolio aimed at innovative growth companies. The intent is to hold each company for at least a year and recalibrate only with each new year.

Since then, an investment of $50,000 would have grown to $67,900 — or $5,500 more than if it had just been invested in an SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY). Read on to see what major developments have occurred with the companies in the portfolio and how you can find out which of these 13 stocks are great buys right now.

Source: YCharts. Because this portfolio is focused on capital appreciation, dividends are not accounted for in either individual stock or market returns.

Major developmentsDuring June, two of the 13 companies in this portfolio made major announcements. The first was apparel company Lululemon. Although its quarterly report was impressive — showing a 21% jump in revenue while earnings were basically flat due to the company’s embarrassing Luon pants fiasco — it was another revelation that caught investors off-guard: CEO Christine Day is stepping aside.

As best people can tell, Day really is leaving for “personal reasons.” Investors are worried that without Day, whose track record at Lululemon is beyond impressive, the company may lose the momentum it has built over the last five years. That helps explain why shares were down more than 20% in the days following the announcement.

The other major development came from 3-D printing company Stratasys. I have long said that I favored Stratasys over rival 3D Systems (though I own both) because I like the former’s focus on fewer, more strategic mergers.

Well, Stratasys made its second major purchase in the past year, announcing that it would be merging with Makerbot for $400 million in stock.